Canon EOS 450D / Digital Rebel XSi, let’s start!

Finally, the announcement that we were expecting from Canon for today (in preparation of next week’s PMA) is about a low-cost consumer D-SLR camera: Canon EOS 450D.

The most significant features are:

12.2 MP CMOS sensor

Improved 9-zone AF system

Continuous shooting at 3.5fps for up to 53 JPEG (6 RAW)

Spot metering

14 bit A/D image processing

Highlight Tone Priority (feature borrowed from EOS 40D)

Auto Lighting Optimiser (improves the shadows in the image)

3.0″ LCD monitor

Live view mode, suported by contrast-detect AF

Larger viewfinder

Redesigned menus (including My Menu as seen in EOS 40D)

New, larger, higher capacity battery

SD/SDHC Flash cards

New battery grip (BG-E5)

If you add the price to these features ($799 for the body only, or $899 for a kit with the 18-55mm stabilised zoom lens) , you get a camera that should be aptly located on the market. Not a revolution, not an Earth-shake, but a solid contender to give pleasure to many amateur photographers adept of the association of ease of use and performance, without the hassle of the complexity of an EOS 40D and its price.